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Question: Are there sources which identify the angel that visited Joseph as "Moroni" that date prior to the "Nephi" error?: Difference between revisions
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Revision as of 02:57, 13 April 2024
Question: Are there sources which identify the angel that visited Joseph as "Moroni" that date prior to the "Nephi" error?
There are multiple independent sources which mention Moroni that pre-date the 1838/1839 error
In contrast to the single source error mentioned above, there are multiple independent sources (originating with Joseph Smith and both friendly and hostile individuals) which demonstrate that the identification of the angel as "Moroni" was well-known and pre-dated the 1838/39 error.
- D&C 27:5 - 1830–1835
- Behold this is wisdom in me: wherefore marvel not for the hour cometh that I will drink of the fruit of the vine with you on the earth, and with Moroni, whom I have sent unto you to reveal the book of Mormon, containing the fulness of my everlasting gospel [modern edition D&C 27꞉5 [1]
- Mormonism Unvailed - 1834, reprinted as History of Mormonism in 1840 [an anti-Mormon book]
- After he had finished translating the Book of Mormon, he again buried up the plates in the side of a mountain, by command of the Lord; some time after this, he was going through a piece of woods, on a by-path, when he discovered an old man dressed in ordinary grey apparel...The Lord told him that the man he saw was MORONI, with the plates, and if he had given him the five coppers, he might have got his plates again.[2]
- Messenger and Advocate - 1835
- I have now given you a rehearsal of what was communicated to our brother, when he was directed to go and obtain the record of the Nephites…and I believe that the angel Moroni, whose words I have been rehearsing, who communicated the knowledge of the record of the Nephites, in this age, saw also, before he hid up the same unto the Lord, great and marvelous things, which were to transpire when the same should come forth.[3]
- Elders' Journal - July 1838
- For those holy men are angels now. And these are they, who make the fulness of times complete with us. And they who sin against this authority given to him ... sins not against him only, but against Moroni, who holds the keys of the stick of Ephraim.[4]
- Elders' Journal - July 1838
- How, and where did you obtain the book of Mormon?...Moroni, the person who deposited the plates, from whence the book of Mormon was translated, in a hill in Manchester, Ontario County, New York, being dead, and raised again therefrom, appeared unto me and told me where they were and gave me directions how to obtain them. I obtained them and the Urim and Thummim with them, by the means of which I translated the plates and thus came the book of Mormon.[5]
- Joseph Smith public discourse - prior to 8 August 1839
- ...the angel flying through the midst of heaven Moroni delivered the Book of Mormon.[6]
- Gospel Reflector - March 1841
- The 1835 Oliver Cowdery letter identifying "the angel Moroni" as the revealer of the golden plates was reprinted.
- [vol. 1, no. 6, March 1841, 161.]
- Times and Seasons - April 1841
- The 1835 Oliver Cowdery letter identifying "the angel Moroni" as the revealer of the golden plates was reprinted.
- [vol. 2, no. 11, 1 April 1841, 363].
- Times and Seasons - March 1843
- “As the prophet observes, behold this is wisdom in me….‘Moroni, whom I have sent unto you to reveal the Book of Mormon….’ [TS 4/8 (1 Mar 1843): 122; also citing D&C 27:5 (50:2 in D&C 1835 edition).
- Millennial Star -- July 1843
- “As the prophet observes, behold this is wisdom in me….‘Moroni, whom I have sent unto you to reveal the Book of Mormon….’ [MS, "The Elias," 4/3 (July 1843): 43; reproduces TS 4/8 (1 Mar 1843): 122, which in turn cites D&C 50:2 (1835 edition), 27:5 (present edition): quotes 27:5-18]
- Pamphlet - 1844
- The 1835 Oliver Cowdery letter identifying "the angel Moroni" as the revealer of the golden plates was reprinted.
- [Letters by Oliver Cowdery to W. W. Phelps on the Origin of the Book of Mormon (Liverpool: Thomas Ward and John Cairns, 1844), 31.]
- D&C 128 (labeled 104 in 1844 edition) - 1844
- And again, what do we hear? Glad tidings from Cumorah! Moroni, an angel from heaven, declaring the fulfilment of the prophets—the book to be revealed. (D&C 128:20).
Notes
- ↑ Doctrine and Covenants 50:2 (1835 edition); received August 1830, written September 1830 (See History of the Church, 1:106, nt. 3).
- ↑ Eber Dudley Howe, Mormonism Unvailed (Painesville, Ohio: Telegraph Press, 1834), 277. (emphasis in original)
- ↑ Oliver Cowdery, (April 1835) Latter Day Saints' Messenger and Advocate 1:112.
- ↑ David W. Patten, Elder's Journal 1:3 (July 1838):42 (see also Millennial Star 1:126). (italics added)
- ↑ Joseph Smith, Jr., Elders’ Journal 1:3 (July 1838): 42–43.
- ↑ Andrew F. Ehat and Lyndon W. Cook, The Words of Joseph Smith: The Contemporary Accounts of the Nauvoo Discourses of Joseph Smith, 2nd Edition, (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1996), 13, cited in Willard Richards' Pocket Companion, prior to 8 August 1839.